Feb232015

We’re looking forward to our first Working Late event in San Francisco this Wednesday (February 25) with editor/typographer Stephen Coles. If you haven’t already grabbed tickets, there’s still room; claim one from the Eventbrite page.

Stephen will be presenting “A Typeface is a Chair,” which interweaves typography with Mid-century Modernist furniture design. To gear up for the talk, we asked Stephen a few questions about typography, his influences, and some of his favorite typographic inspirations.

What excites you most about typography?

Just when I think I’ve seen it all—every typographic possibility has been exploited, the font market is saturated—someone does something new. Almost as exciting is when I discover that one of these things was done 50 years ago and most people didn’t realize it. That’s the stuff I usually post on Fonts In Use or Flickr.

Who are your mentors? What are the most memorable things they’ve taught you?

My first boss in the type industry, Erik Spiekermann, taught me an important lesson about hiring: Don’t start with a position and look for candidates to fill it. Instead, seek out smart people you trust and want to work with, and let them create the position that fits them.

My other mentor is my mom. She told me to be kind to people.

What are some fun places to go for typographic inspiration both online and off?

Online:Flickr is the best place on the Internet to see old type specimens, rare magazines, and weird signs. Forget Instagram for type (Instagram is for pet videos and things that are square. Type is almost never square.)

4. The Letterform Archive. Did you know that one of the world’s most complete collections of typographic ephemera, original artwork, and typeface specimens is here in San Francisco? Go see it.

What are you looking forward to with the future of typography?

For hundreds of years, type was arranged by typographers and set by typesetters: a narrow subset of design specialists with special equipment and special training. In this new era of self-publishing, suddenly everyone is a typographer. This is both scary and exciting. It brings new education challenges: for instance, basic terms like “type” are increasingly misused. (Hint: most of the signs and stone carving I mentioned above are all examples of lettering; stuff made with fonts is type.) The positive news is that this expansion of the craft engages specialists from other fields who haven’t had to think about type until now. People from diverse disciplines (like web design and engineering) are contributing all sorts of new ideas to typography.

Also, font jokes make more sense at a normal person party than they used to.

In anticipation of your talk on Wednesday, will you give us a teaser?

You will see how birdwatching is like fontspotting. You will learn how a chair is like a typeface. You will hear the sound Gill Sans makes.

We can’t wait to hear more from Stephen on Wednesday at our Working Late event in San Francisco. There will be food and drinks, typographic design talk and, probably, some font jokes. So, visit Eventbrite to grab a ticket if you haven’t already, and we’ll see you there.

Feb162015

Elana Schlenker, a graphic designer and the publisher of Gratuitous Type, will be speaking at our next Working Late event in Brooklyn at Makeshift Society. In preparation, we asked her to share a few thoughts about her work; below Elana expresses her enthusiasm for independent publishing and the freedom and creativity it breeds.

Who are your mentors? How have they shaped your approach to publishing?

My earliest mentors were the authors of books I loved as a child. Shel Silverstein and Graeme Base were perhaps my favorites—both authored and illustrated their own books, and from a very early age I remember telling people that’s what I wanted to do as well, write and draw. Not one or the other, but both. It’s funny that so many years later, in my own way, I’m doing that with Gratuitous Type, designing and writing everything myself. I suppose even as a five-year-old, I had some sense that I wanted to be in charge of everything—a tyrant from the start.

In my professional life, there are so many people who have inspired and supported me, but one of the most notable would be Tod Lippy, the editor and publisher of Esopus, a magazine I interned with during my first summer in New York. Esopus is an incredible publication of artists’ projects that Tod runs almost completely on his own. Just like those childhood inspirations, here was someone doing everything himself. I really respect his singular vision and ability to carry it out; he was a huge inspiration in my decision to start Gratuitous Type.

What are some interesting trends you’re noticing in printed material?

I love how more and more people are taking the whole process into their own hands—not just self publishing, but producing and printing work themselves. Publishers like Conveyor Editions, Hato Press, Publication Studio are some of my favorites.

What do you most enjoy about the zine format?

I like the inherent simplicity of the booklet format, and the endless ways in which artists continue to subvert and reinvent it. There is so much potential for incorporating unique production details, storytelling techniques, and just to play—it’s a great place for experimentation.

To what type of communication style are zines and quarterlies best suited?

I think the beauty of zines and other independent publications is that they are adaptable to so many styles and types of communication—again, it’s exciting to see people continue to reinvent a format that’s been around for ages. From a personal standpoint, I’m interested in the serial nature of publications (like Gratuitous Type), and the ways in which this feature facilitates reinvention, play, and growth. I love that I always have another chance to change things and make them better. (I hope!)

In anticipation of your presentation Wednesday, what are you most looking forward to (how about a little teaser)?

Everyone will be asked to draw one thing they love and one thing they hate. Both will be printed on the same page, and each contributor will be able to decide to what degree these pieces will overlap or interact. I think there will be some really interesting and exciting results.

I’m also super excited to work with Gerardo Madera of Common Satisfactory Standard. I can’t wait to see his Riso printer in action! I love that we’ll be making the zines right there on the spot, so attendants will really be a part of the entire process.

Hear more from Elana in person at Makeshift Society in Brooklyn, Wednesday February 18 at 6:30pm. We’ll have food and drinks, and an evening that’s part presentation and part zine-making… and the final piece will be printed through a Riso printer.

Jan152015

The update provides more fine-tuned control over exactly which languages are supported on your websites—which in turn can hugely improve load times for webpages. The new UI also gives better visibility into the OpenType features that are included with a font, which will open up a lot more potential for advanced typesetting on the web.

Subsetting has been one of our most-requested features, and we’re delighted to make it available to everyone. If you’d like to learn more about using it, see the Typekit blog for details.

With Typekit’s new language subsetting controls, you can combine language support in any way a selected font allows and optimize for a smaller kit size.

Some key highlights of the release

Creative Cloud for desktop now automatically detects and downloads any update available for Creative Cloud for desktop, so you no longer have to track and install updates manually. To enable auto-update, just select Always keep Creative Cloud for desktop up to date when installing an update. You can, at any time, enable or disable the auto-update setting from the General tab in the Preferences dialog for Creative Cloud for desktop.

Font syncing from Typekit is now enabled by default, so you will no longer need to Turn on Typekit to start syncing and using fonts in your favorite applications. If you need to turn syncing off, you can do this anytime from Preferences > Fonts in Creative Cloud desktop. For information about adding and managing Typekit fonts, see Add fonts from Typekit.

If you’re a Creative Cloud for enterprise customer, your employees will soon be able to sign in using their Federated ID with Single Sign-On support.

Also in the latest version of Creative Cloud for desktop

You can now sync files and fonts quickly and seamlessly even when switching Internet connections. For information about managing assets, see Browse, sync, and manage assets.

So, what are you waiting for? Install the latest update for Creative Cloud for desktop and take full advantage of the cool features and improvements we’ve made.

How to update

You’ll be prompted to update when you relaunch Creative Cloud for desktop. If you do not relaunch the app, you’ll get an update notification in 24 hours. Click Install Now to download and install the latest version, and then relaunch the app.

If you’re a new user and have not installed Creative Cloud for desktop yet, the latest version is available for download from Creative Cloud Download Center.

Nov262014

Typography can make or break a design. While many apps provide precise typographic controls, it’s important to start with the perfect font. Adobe Typekit opens the door to thousands of fonts for use on the web or in desktop applications.

Every paid Creative Cloud complete membership includes the Typekit Portfolio plan, which provides access to the full library of web and desktop fonts. (If you have a free Creative Cloud subscription, you still get a selection of fonts as part of the Typekit trial plan.)

Quick syncing

The Creative Cloud for desktop app syncs desktop fonts to your computer effortlessly. If the Creative Cloud for desktop app is not installed, you will be prompted to download it when you sync fonts using the Typekit account.

In the Creative Cloud app, navigate to the Assets tab and select the Fonts tab to see your current synced fonts and search for new fonts to add. While browsing the fonts library, you can narrow down the fonts for desktop use by enabling the Desktop Use filter in the filtering panel. You can then sync fonts and use them in any application installed on your computer. For more information, see Browse and add fonts from Typekit.

Offline use

Synced desktop fonts are available for use even when you’re offline, as long as the Creative Cloud for desktop app is running and you’re signed in. If you quit the Creative Cloud app, synced fonts become temporarily unavailable; signing out from the Creative Cloud app removes synced fonts from your computer. When you sign in again, the fonts are automatically re-synced from Typekit.

Easy font management

You can view synced desktop fonts in the Fonts panel of the Creative Cloud for desktop app, or manage them through your Typekit account. You can also turn font sync on or off from the Preferences panel of the Creative Cloud for desktop app. For more information, see Manage synced fonts.

Go ahead, sync some fonts, and let us know how it goes. For additional help with Typekit and syncing Creative Cloud fonts, you might find the following helpful:

For our final event in the series on November 11, Kelli Anderson will deconstruct a recent project, beginning with a quick overview of the final product, then unpacking the design decisions to explain where and how the ideas developed along the way.

Kelli is an accomplished designer with a demonstrated interest in solving design problems in three dimensions. Her gifted work with paper crafting has been displayed at ApexArt, Jen Bekman Gallery, the New York Public Library, and MoMA. Whether she’s creating tiny forest animals of paper or bringing famous book covers to life, her work is delightful across the board.

Kelli’s blog is a treasure trove of past project walkthroughs, and definitely worth a perusal. For her project breakdown next Tuesday, she’ll walk through the phases of an ambitious design project from her portfolio, sharing insight into how a professional designer brings an idea from concept to full realization.

We’re really looking forward to this event and can’t wait to hear what Kelli has to say. If you’re planning to join us, save room for dessert; we’ve got a sweet surprise to close out the series.

If you’ll be in New York November 11, join Typekit and Makeshift Society at 55 Hope Street in Brooklyn. Get the details. See you soon!

Nov32014

Good news for your desktop (and your websites): We’ve added a boatload of new typefaces from Hamilton Wood Type Foundry to the Typekit library.

Hamilton Wood Type (HWT) is a partnership between the P22 type foundry and the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, bringing 19th-century wood type designs into modern font formats. We’ve long been supporters of this cause at Adobe Type, conducting fundraisers and making donations, and helping with the digitization effort. Three of the designs in the HWT collection were digitized by members of our team: Gothic Round by me, Tuscan Extended by Frank Greißhammer, and Bulletin Script by Paul Hunt.

The bulk of the HWT Collection is comprised of digital revivals, but it also includes two original designs made by Erik Spiekermann (HWT Artz) and Matthew Carter (HWT Van Lanen).

We included just a couple of HWT fonts in our library prior to this release, but now we’re all caught up: All of the font families of the current HWT collection are now available at Typekit, and you can use any of them on your desktop (and, in most cases, on the web) with a Portfolio plan or higher.

This initiative not only helps the dissemination of fonts that were previously only available as wood type, but it also helps the preservation of wood type history since a portion of proceeds from all sales of the HWT digital fonts goes toward supporting the mission and operation of the The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.

With over twenty fonts new to the Typekit library from HWT, we’d be here all day if we profiled each one. Here’s a handful to give you a sample (be sure to check out the full list.)

HWT Gothic Round

It’s hard to believe the contemporary-looking HWT Gothic Round was originally designed almost two centuries ago, in 1838. The round edges of this Gothic (or sans-serif) face give the design an undeniable warmth and bubbly quality—particularly noticeable in the lowercase letters. The design’s heavy weight provides plenty of impact in applications that demand a reader’s heightened attention, such as a magazine masthead or a store sign. This typeface was a 2013 Typographica favorite; see more about the work that went into digitizing it.

HWT Van Lanen

In 2002, the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum commissioned typeface designer Matthew Carter to develop a new wood type design as a way to help promote the newly established facility. Part of the project included the fabrication of actual wood blocks. Named after Jim Van Lanen, the museum’s founder, this bold wedge-shape serifed design of HWT Van Lanen is reminiscent of the Latin Extended style popularized in the late 19th century. Included in the family is a reversed font style, called Streamer, that can be used on its own or in combination with the default style to create interesting chromatic effects. See the Hamilton Wood Type Behance page for more details about the making of Van Lanen.

Let us know what you make with these new fonts; we love seeing cool type in action. And if you’ve never tried Typekit, sign up for a free trial and take a look around… then upgrade to a paid plan when you’re ready.

Oct212014

Bring the goodness of Creative Cloud right to your desktop.

Creative Cloud for desktop is a lightweight, configurable app that lets you manage Creative Cloud apps, sync assets, receive notifications, and connect to powerful Cloud functionality and services—all from the comfort of your desktop.

Creative Cloud for desktop enables your Creative Profile. An effective way of managing your creative assets across apps and devices, Creative Profile connects you to everything you need for your creative work—files, pictures, colors, brushes, shapes, fonts, text styles, graphics, and any other creative assets you care about—and puts it all at your fingertips, by simply signing into Creative Cloud for desktop.

Let’s take a closer look at the feature-rich technologies and powerful Cloud services that Creative Cloud for desktop offers:

Apps

Creative Cloud for desktop makes it easy to discover, download, and install the newest Creative Cloud desktop apps to your computer. In addition to the latest versions, you can also find previous versions of apps, and receive notifications about updates as soon as they’re available.

Creative Cloud for desktop is also now a one-stop shop to launch apps, manage updates, and even uninstall older apps that you no longer need.

Assets, libraries, and more

Creative Cloud comes with online storage that lets you access your work from anywhere and share your work with others in any location. Creative Cloud for desktop connects your Creative Cloud online storage to your computer, keeping all your files in sync, across all your computers.

With Creative Cloud for desktop, you’ll never run into a “missing font” scenario. Use the Creative Cloud for desktop app to sync fonts from Typekit on your desktop; synced fonts continue to be available on your computer, as long as the Creative Cloud for desktop app is running. Use the synced fonts in your favorite Adobe apps, as well as any other apps installed on your computer.

Your creativity can reach greater heights with Creative Cloud Market, a collection of high-quality assets, created and curated by professionals like you. You can build on these assets, modify them, and use them without worrying about attribution, licensing, usage tracking, or royalty payments. Simply use the Creative Cloud for desktop app to browse through the assets, add to a Library, and download the assets to your computer.

During the Adobe MAX 2014 launch keynote, we announced availability of Creative Cloud Libraries which provide seamless access to your creative assets across Creative Cloud’s desktop tools and all-new connected mobile apps. Creative Cloud for desktop helps to keep your Creative Cloud Libraries in sync, so that any brushes, shapes, colors, graphics, or assets you save to a Library, are instantly available on your desktop from within Adobe Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC.

Community

How can a creative experience be complete without a community? Use the Creative Cloud for desktop app to dig in to the vast collective of creative talent on Behance. Remain inspired and keep ahead of the curve by following other creative people. You can browse through projects, share and seek feedback about your work, and take a closer look at a project that piques your interest all from within the Creative Cloud for desktop app.

Get started with Creative Cloud for desktop

Creative Cloud for desktop is your interface to Creative Cloud on the desktop!

Always stay up to date with what’s happening in your creative world by using notifications in Creative Cloud for desktop. If you don’t have it running already, download Creative Cloud for desktop now and get the most out of your Creative Cloud experience.

While Creative Cloud for desktop works behind the scenes to bring your Creative Cloud Profile to your computer, you can also use it actively to access Creative Cloud products and services. To learn more about what you can do with Creative Cloud for desktop, read through these resources:

Jun32014

We are thrilled to announce a full shelf of new releases at Typekit today. You can now get your hands on new fonts, extended families, and added desktop availability from two longtime Typekit foundry partners: TypeTogether and Rui Abreu. Let’s get to it:

Essay Text from TypeTogether

The lovely Essay Text by Stefan Ellmer is a serif text face comprised of an upright and an italic. Drawing from the historical context of the Renaissance, the italic can act as a complement to the upright, or stand on its own as a text face. Both carry a calligraphic slant, more comparable to each other than is typical of this pairing. Don’t miss the stylistic alternates and other typographic and ornamental goodies hidden within. Both styles are available for desktop sync for Creative Cloud subscribers.

Abril Titling from TypeTogether

Welcome the newest addition to the Abril family: Abril Titling. A well-stocked font family in its own right (eight styles in four different widths), the letterforms, contrast, and spacing are revisions of Abril Text—sturdier than Abril Display, while more suitable than Abril Text for larger sizes, and more varied in available widths. All 32 styles are available for desktop sync!

We’ve also updated two other TypeTogether families, with italic versions of the geometric sans serif Soleil, and the casual slab serif Bree Serif. Both families are available for desktop sync.

Signo from Rui Abreu

Also new to Typekit is Signo from Rui Abreu. Signo’s reverse contrast letterforms (the horizontal strokes are heavier than the vertical strokes, contrary to most type designs) stand out when set in headlines and in editorial environments. The heavier horizontals also help the visual continuity of characters in lines of text. Aided by a high x-height, open counters, and TrueType hinting for some older Windows browsers, Signo also performs well in body copy. Select styles are available for desktop sync.

Grafolita Script from Rui Abreu

Rui’s warm, inviting Grafolita Script has an easy fluidity achieved by careful design of glyph-connecting finials and contextual alternates where connections make less sense. Grafolita Script comes in three weights, with alternate superscript underlines and special ligatures for “and” and “or” to lend it a touch of sign-painted whimsy. Grafolita Script Medium is available for desktop sync.

Azo Sans Uber and Azo Sans Bold from Rui Abreu

Azo Sans Uber is the ultra heavy display weight of Rui’s Azo Sans (shown in the last line of the sample above). It’s packed with personality, with contextual alternates like the R and Ys above that give the chunky sans serif an air of playfulness. Some styles of Azo Sans are also now available for desktop sync.

Rui’s popular typeface Gesta has now also been extended for use in Creative Cloud desktop sync. Check out Nick Cox’s excellent article “About Face: Gesta.”

Font families mentioned in this post, and their availability for web and desktop at Typekit:

Have at ‘em! If you’ve never tried Typekit, sign up (it’s free!) and upgrade to a paid plan when you’re ready.

May202014

Twenty-five years after Adobe Originals were introduced, they’re still setting the standard for typographic excellence.

In 1989 Adobe Garamond and Utopia, the first type designs from Adobe, were released and the Adobe Originals program was born. With Utopia, an original design, and Adobe Garamond, a historic revival that captured the essence of its models while offering all the advantages of contemporary typography, the release signaled to the design and type community that Adobe was serious about typography. Many of the typefaces released over the years have become timeless classics: Myriad, Minion, Trajan, Lithos, and Adobe Caslon are just a few examples that have withstood the test of time and will likely be widely used and respected for many years to come.

To celebrate 25 years of original type design at Adobe, later this month the newly combined Typekit and Adobe Type team will be launching a new blog series that will run throughout the summer. The series will share the history of type design at Adobe; showcase some of Adobe’s typefaces and designers; talk about how new technologies have, in recent years, changed type design at Adobe; and ask designers such as Stephen Coles, Marian Bantjes, and Jessica Hische to share their perspective on Adobe Originals.

But what celebration about type design would be complete without a new typeface? Beginning today, Adobe’s 100th typeface family, Source Serif, is available free as a thank you to our customers. Source Serif, designed as the companion to Adobe’s popular Source Sans typeface, lends itself to extended text on paper and on screen. For desktop and web use through Typekit’s free plan, it’s available to all Creative Cloud members, including trial users.

Source Serif is available in regular, semi-bold, and bold; additional weights and italics will be released at a later date.

Read the Typekit blog to Learn more about today’s announcements, how to keep up with this summer’s Adobe Originals series, and where to get Adobe’s new open source typeface. And, to keep up with the upcoming Adobe Originals series, bookmark the RSS feed.